Prompt 24: Travel

My Plane is Late in New York, Tell My Mother

She sounded British
We only spoke for a moment but there was more Manchester than Munich in her accent
Perhaps I had gotten it all wrong and she was a globe trotting nomad
Picking up speech nuances as easily as picking up a magazine in an airport

I agreed to share my home with a total stranger from Germany
I cleaned out the guest room and moved my favorite dresser in
Rearranged my shelves in the kitchen and in the bathroom and
Waited for the phone call to go pick her up

She missed her connection in New York and wanted me to tell her mom if she called
That doesn’t sound like a cosmopolitan world traveler’s worry but it’s hers
It’s the unknown coming to a room near mine in a matter of minutes
In a house that I’ve only shared for no more than a night or a fortnight at a time

There were the corporate apartments in San Jose during the dot com boom
Two co workers staying out of each others space with great deference
Than 20 plus years in Arizona with the same guest regiment as now
Before that the stuttering parade of partners in the wake of the demise of my marriage

She sounds British and she is spoken of so highly by those who know her
Recommended by a woman I love who has put me on to so many red herrings
Often I wonder why I don’t hold these expensive mistakes against her
She asked me if I would make room for Claudia and I said of course